COUP-2016: TAKE ONE. (By Yevgenia Albats. The New
Times, Nov. 21, 2016, p. 24. Complete text:) We knew this would
happen sooner or later. We were waiting for it. We wrote literally
in our last issue that economic and administrative repressions have
become an instrument of governance. We warned that those hailing
from the Soviet Union’s most fearsome and powerful agency - the KGB
- have taken control not only of key government posts, but of all
important cash flows: gas, oil, telecommunications, finance,
television channels and media holdings. All those assets are in the
hands of the special services or the president’s inner circle. And
there is zero oversight. There is no government institution or
public organization that can keep tabs on the FSB [Federal Security
Service], the National Guard or other similar agencies.

On Nov. 14, 2016, everything fell into place: The state’s main
repressive agency was no longer controlled from Lubyanka [where the
FSB offices are located - Trans.] or from the Kremlin;
rather, [it is now controlled] from the Sofia embankment, which is
home to the offices of Rosneft, the largest state-owned oil
corporation (with a capitalization of over 3 trillion rubles and
power to match). In other words, what we are witnessing is not the
merging of the state and business (as columnists have fretted about
to no end), but rather the merging of a repressive agency with the
wealthiest state-owned corporation. Readers are reminded that
[until now], only government agencies (which we traditionally refer
to as "law-enforcement agencies") have had the legal right to
resort to force. Meaning only [those agencies] have the right to do
what was done on Nov. 14 - arrest a federal minister, search and
detain him, take him to court, indict him and demand restraint
measures that would deprive him of freedom [see ...

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